From The Scoop: The Phantom

From the May 19 issue of Gemstone Publishing's The Scoop:

Long before Batman stalked the streets of Gotham City; before The Lone Ranger rode to the rescue in the old west; before The Shadow saw into the hearts of men, The Phantom was striking fear in the hearts of the wicked as comics' first masked avenger. For over 400 hundred years, 36 men have donned the costume and mask to fight evil, each successive Phantom passing the mantle to his own son.

For 70 years, The Phantom has entertained and enthralled the world. Creator Lee Falk established a hero that could grow with each new generation, a hero that could pass the torch to the next to tell amazing stories throughout history. The meticulous details that Falk weaved into his elaborate yarn take readers from the depths of the darkest jungles of Bengalla to the high seas of the Atlantic, from the mountains of Mongolia to the prairies of the old west.

These men who bore the name of The Phantom swash-buckled their way through more than 60 years of daily newspaper strips and 58 years of Sunday strips. The character has been the star of feature films and film serials, television and comics. In the mid-'90s, Peter Chung (Aeon Flux) co-created an animated series called Phantom 2040 which followed the adventures of Kit Walker, grandson of the current Phantom. Among his many exploits, Walker was able to solve the mystery of his own father's disappearance/death.

The character has changed with the times around him and tackled evil in many forms. From Blackbeard the pirate, to the Nazis, to corrupt governments the battle against evil is never-ending.

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